


Simpler Days, Simpler Times

by Endlessnotebooks



Series: The Brothers Parker-Peralta [2]
Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Gen, One-Shots, Series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-25 11:09:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15639522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Endlessnotebooks/pseuds/Endlessnotebooks
Summary: A series of one-shots of events that didn't make it into Livin' in Queens, Livin' It Up in Brooklyn.





	1. Our Bond Was Forged in Fire

Peter didn’t remember much of the Expo in the grand scheme of things. He remembered his mom picking him up, he remembered her being worried, speaking too fast for him to hear as the noise around him started getting louder and louder.

He remembered large robots, ones that looked like a failed Iron Man, the ones with the weird heads and the weirder movements.

He remembered falling as his mom let go of him, and hitting the pavement – he still had the scar to prove that one. He had hit a broken drink bottle, the glass from it gashing into his elbow, deep and painful.

It hurt so much, and he clutched at it as he ran back towards his mom. His dad had said he was in the bathroom, he would come looking for them and if his mom wasn’t standing. He landed beside her and started shaking her.

“Mom, mom!” She was still laying there, face-down on the path. People were running around them, but some didn’t even see them. His mother’s wrist looked off, and Peter felt people’s feet hit him. He felt it, but he didn’t cry because of the pain, he cried because his mom wasn’t getting up.

“Mom, it’s not funny! Stop it!”

“Peter? Peter!” Peter stood up to find his dad. He didn’t like how his voice sounded, didn’t like how worried it sounded. His dad wasn’t afraid of anything. Why was he worried?

“Daddy!”

He started running, only to get stopped when someone pulled him away, seeing the drone come flying into his father, crushing him into the ground, before Peter ever would have seen it. “DAD!”

His dad looked at him, reaching his free arm at him. “Peter!”

Peter pulled free as much as he could from the stranger, running towards his father. The drone was dead, the light in the ‘face’ of it out and gone, everything about it limp.

His dad grabbed his arm when he was close enough, pulled him into a one-armed hug and kissed his forehead before he told him to go. He wasn’t breathing right, Peter could hear it. He sounded like he was fighting, but he pushed Peter away, going limp afterward with a barely breathed final, “I love you.”

Peter had forgotten about his mask until he saw it on the ground, running to safety.

What right did they have to take away his mom and dad? Why did they get to do that? Why did those robots have to hurt these people?

Everyone around him was running, was focused on getting themselves and their family away. But Peter couldn’t help himself. His mom and dad were dead, and he couldn’t do anything to change it. He knew what death was – he was young, not stupid. He knew they wouldn’t come back, but what was he supposed to do without them? They always talked about him going to college, had always talked about it like they were going to be right there with him, no matter where he moved for school.

And now they wouldn’t be.

He put the mask on. He let himself believe for just a moment that he could fight the HammerDrones, that he could keep someone else alive. He didn’t even care if he got shot or died because of it, either.

And then there was a screech and the drone fell, Iron Man zooming by him and telling him “good job”. He was so startstruck that when someone grabbed him and yelled at him to get to the trains he didn’t even fight them. He boarded the first subway he saw and hoped he could remember how to get back to his aunt and uncle’s from the station. He hoped he remembered what station he was supposed to go to.

*

Jake Peralta hadn’t been super interested in the Stark Expo, though Amy had been talking about it since they started up, trying to get him to go with her. He hadn’t expected some kind of terrorist incident there, though. As soon as he heard, he was on his way to the subway stations, ready to help direct people after the evacuation.

“Everybody, please! Listen to me! Triage and medical are there,” he pointed to an old deli his mom had always taken him to, one that the owners had volunteered to help. “You can come give statements down at the precinct, any of our uniformed officers will be happy to take you there. If you’re trying to find family, please wait patiently until someone has come by to take your information!”

He heard children crying, and he knew not to let it get to him too much. He had to focus on what he was doing, and most of them were clinging to people as it was. One of the kids, though, was sitting on a curb, holding an Iron Man helmet and not meeting anyone’s eyes. Jake could see the tears, but the kid wasn’t trying to get anyone’s attention. He bounded over to the kid, brushing off the person by him that was trying to get him to talk.

“Hey, buddy.” The kid looked up, but didn’t hold Jake’s gaze for long. Jake lowered his head a bit, kneeling next to him so he could get a better look.

_About nine years old, brown hair and eyes. Small cut on his left cheek, long one down his arm._

“Hey, what can I do to help you.”

“Nothing.”

Jake was hesitant to touch the kid at all, but he had to get him away from the chaos a bit. “I’m not so sure about that.” He gently touched the kid’s shoulder, putting enough pressure to encourage the kid to stand up with him. “Let me take you down to the precinct. Maybe we can find your family.”

“I got lost. Uncle Ben and Aunt May don’t live around here.”

“What about Mom and Dad?”

The kid started crying again, biting his lip and trying to stay quiet. “They’re not… They…” The kid swallowed. “They didn’t get to the trains.”

Casualties, then. He was loathe to call them that, loathe to think of any kid being told their parents were just ‘casualties’, which is why he was never, ever going to let this kid hear that if he could help it. But, he had to focus on the reality of the situation just as much as he did on getting this kid somewhere safe where he could calm down and get Jake the information he needed to get him back to his family.

“Come on.” Jake put out a hand for the kid. He made sure his badge was visible, hoping that might put the kid at ease. On the way, he got a name – Peter Parker.

When they got to the precinct, where there was just as much chaos, but where there was a quiet room Jake could take Peter to with some toys for him to divert his attention to, his crying started to slow down. Figuring it couldn’t hurt, Jake joined in on the play. What started as playing with the Iron Man and Captain America action figures turned into building a tower out of all the toys Peter could get his hands on.

Jake was surprised at how well it worked, at Peter’s eye for what would balance where. When they finished, Peter was standing on the small table to add the final pieces to the tower.

“Done!”

“Aw, yeah! High-five!” Jake ruffled Peter’s hair after that. The boy laughed and tried to jump up and do it to Jake.

It had been a long time since anyone had done that to Jake… He had missed it.

“You’re funny, Mister Peralta!”

“Kid, you call me that again and I will run out of here screaming like a maniac. I may be old, but I’m not an adult in any sense of the word.”

He hadn’t heard Amy come in, but he had to fight the urge to laugh and roll his eyes when she said, “I don’t think you ever made it past _twelve_.”

“Oh, har, har, Santiago.” Jake turned to her. “Did you get what I needed?”

“His living relatives are May and Ben Parker. They didn’t answer, so I called their work. They’re on shift until midnight.”

“I’ll stay with him, then.”

“Are you sure?” Amy’s head pulled back on her shoulders a bit. “I didn’t peg you for a child person.”

“He trusts me, at least, I think he does.” Jake shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. He’s happy right now, or as happy as he can be, and that’s all I care about.”

Amy looked behind him before giving Jake a look. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

She handed him a folder, the insides of which barely had anything in them. “Well, here’s what we’ve got on them. Obviously, it’s not much, but it should help you get him back to them.”

“Thanks, Ames.”

Peter was making a face as Amy walked out. “Is she your girlfriend?”

“What?”

*

Peter had fallen asleep with his head laying on Jake’s lap. His hair, curly as it was, mussed up against Jake’s leg.

“Aw, shit.”

He was attached.

The kid squirmed in his sleep, a hand grabbing Jake’s shirt. “Momma.”

Jake put a hand in his hair, tugging gently at some of the tangles in it. The kid was still whimpering a bit, but he seemed to relax into it. Jake used his other hand to grab his phone. After checking the time (twenty minutes until he would be taking the kid home), he texted Amy.

_Me: I hate it when you’re right_

He wouldn’t finish the conversation until the next day, though, because the slight pause gave whatever nightmare the kid had been murmuring about time to start up again. The kid was grabbing onto his shirt, this time more desperately, and yelling for his mom. By the time Jake was reaching down to start playing with his hair again, he was starting to whimper about his dad.

This kid had been through too much in too short a time. Jake picked him up, resting Peter’s head against his shoulder. He would do what he could to find some child trauma specialists, pass the list off to his aunt and uncle. Terry had already gone home, as had most of the squad. Hell, Jake was supposed to be at Gina’s for a ‘family dinner’ hours ago. She hadn’t been happy when he cancelled, but pictures and videos with the kid had her saying she was proud of him and to be a good influence.

Jake spent a little longer than originally planned putting together the list. Holding the kid made typing a little harder, but it felt nice. Like it had when he would hold his baby cousins when he was a teenager. It was a warm feeling.

Knocking on the door, to May and Ben’s apartment, though, he realized they hadn’t heard the news. It made some amount of sense – the event had been that night, they had been working. Their look of confusion, though, said a lot.

It was May that had answered. Ben had called out to her once the door was open, asking who it was.

“Ma’am, my name is Jake Peralta. I’m a detective with the NYPD.” He shifted Peter, who was starting to stir from where he was in Jake’s arms. “You’re listed as Peter Parker’s living relatives.”

She understood that something had happened, that much was clear. This was probably a job better suited to CPS, but Jake had seen enough of their offices to know that holding onto the kid for that evening and then passing him to his aunt and uncle – who, as far as he could tell, were nice people – was probably the better choice. This way the kid wasn’t being put in a temporary home or anything, potentially traumatizing him further…

Jake didn’t let himself keep thinking down that line. May let him into the apartment as Peter started rubbing at his eyes with one hand and grabbing Jake’s hood with the other. May disappeared down a hall, calling to Ben.

“Welcome back, kiddo.”

“Where are we, Jake?”

“We’re at your aunt and uncle’s, bud.”

Ben was taller than Jake, with a sweater over a button-down and glasses. All in all, he looked every part of the stereotypical professor.  He took one look at Peter and reached over to pat his head.

“You okay?” Peter shook his head, burying it further into Jake’s shoulder. It made Jake wonder, just a bit, what he had done to make the kid like him and trust him enough that even around his relatives he was clinging to Jake.

“Hey, bud.” Ben reached to Peter. “Hey, your room from last time is still set up. You wanna sleep there tonight or with May and me?”

Peter grabbed his uncle’s hand, still holding onto Jake. When Ben tried to pull Peter from Jake, Peter shook his head.

“No. I don’t want him to leave.”

“I’m sure Detective Peralta has a family he needs to get to.” Ben rubbed Peter’s head. “Come on, Peter.”

Peter shook his head. The kid was ten, Jake was sure he knew he was being childish. But, damn it, this was a _kid_. A kid that had seen his parents die a few hours ago. Jake pat his back and turned to Ben Parker.

“It’s okay.” Jake shook his head. “My plans for tonight got cancelled. I don’t mind sticking around if you think it’ll help.”

The two of them kept chatting, May joining them and taking Peter from them.

“Come on, sweetie. You need a shower.” She was looking at him, particularly at his arm, worried.

Jake hadn’t noticed the dirt on the kid’s face, or the blood on his arm. “I’m so sorry, ma’am. I should have noticed that and treated it at the precinct.”

May waved a hand at him. “Ben, will you help Detective Peralta until I’m done with Peter?”

“You got it, hon.” Ben gestured for him to sit. “You like tea or coffee?”

“Can I just have water?”

Ben laughed. “Of course!”

The smile, like his laugh, seemed strained. Like he was ignoring something, putting it off. “Sir, I’m… I’m really sorry for your loss.”

“It would have had to be both of them if you’re here.” Ben shook his head. “Rich and Mary, well…” He put a hand in his hair, leaning back in his seat. “Rich and I didn’t get along great, not after college. We only started talking after Peter was born, and that’s because Mary insisted on May and I as godparents.”

“To be honest, I don’t really know how I feel about all of this. Peter’s always been a sweet kid, but he looks so much like Richard…”

Jake listened as Ben talked. It was a few minutes later that he was on his feet, hearing Peter crying. Ben chuckled. “He’ll be fine. May probably had to sew up that cut of his. He’s lucky we’re both nurses. He hates doctors’ offices and hospitals.”

Jake nodded, still anxious to go to the kid and help out. A few minutes later, though, and he was running to Jake, showing off his stitches. “Aunt May says I’m gonna have a cool scar!”

Ben ruffled Peter’s hair, looking at his arm. “Your Aunt May always was good at sutures.” He put a hand on Peter’s shoulder, but Peter pulled away a bit, gravitating towards Jake.

“Are you gonna leave, Jake?”

“Nah.” Jake knelt down by Peter. “Not if your uncle and aunt don’t mind having me around.”

*

May was the one to console Ben after Peter fell asleep, Jake leaning against his bed and holding his hand.

“He had to latch on to someone after it happened. I’m just glad it’s someone nice like Jake.”

“We don’t know him. At all.”

“I’ll call his captain in the morning.” May rubbed his shoulder, heading towards their room. “Let Peter have him for tonight, at least. We don’t know what he saw, and Jake is helping him stay calm.

“Look at this list he put together for us.” She handed Ben the paper. “His handwriting isn’t the best, but he was kind enough to try and get something together for us to get Peter some help. He cares, a lot.”

Ben sighed. “Alright. Yeah… He’s been good for Peter. He can stay tonight.”

May kissed his cheek before she changed. “Who knows, maybe this will be good for him in the long run.”

*

It was. Ben had been hesitant at first, but then he came home from work one day to hear Peter talking to Jake in his room. He was crying, and Ben’s first instinct was to go and help, but he stopped.

“Why’d they have to… Why’d that Hammer guy…”

“Sometimes people just suck. There’s nothing you can do about it.” Ben walked along the edge of the wall, ignoring the look May was giving him. He peeked into Peter’s room, surprised to see that Jake wasn’t cowing away from the emotional conversation. Peter had a stuffed animal in his hands, flopping it around a bit. Jake was sitting on the floor across from him, holding one of his own and engaging Peter’s own make-believe as much as Peter would let him and no more. His focus, though, was on Peter. He was gauging the boy’s state, pushing where he felt necessary and pulling back and distracting when Peter got too uncomfortable.

And that was the start. That was when Ben started inviting Jake to family events, or inviting him out for drinks once in a while. That was when Jake became their second son.


	2. The Defense Attorney

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A 13 year-old (and more immature) Peter's views on Sophia Perez.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit shorter this time, but given it's a one-shot and this one is more of a snapshot at that, I'm not too worried about it. I might go into either Budapest (in this 'verse) or where the mutual hand-in-hair thing from Livin' In Queens... comes from soon, but I'm thinking I'll post a chapter about how Peter met Holt next. No promises, though!

In the two years that Jake had known Peter, the kid had started to idolize him. Jake wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but he thought it was funny when he brought Sophia home for the first time to meet him The kid had been nice enough, but the first time her job had come up he made a face.

“So you help the _bad guys?”_ Peter was thirteen, and had all the awkward ‘I want to be intimidating but I look like a lanky puppy’ facial expressions that Jake remembered from high school. “What would Tony Stark say about that? How do you and Jake even get along?”

The only person Peter liked more than May, Ben, or Jake was Tony Stark. He loved the man for being Iron Man – something Jake was sure was a result of the night that took his parents, given what had happened – but as he got older and more invested in science, it evolved into hero-worship of the man for his body of scientific work. Peter ate all of Tony’s papers up, reading them over and over. His understanding of some of the concepts was shocking to Jake, but the kid did whatever research he had to do in order to understand the research.

“I help prove people are innocent of their crimes.”

“If they’re innocent, are they still their crimes?”

Sophia took a second to think that one over. “The charges are on their record until their proven innocent, so until I do my job, yes. They are.”

Peter’s lips quirked, an expression Jake had learned meant he didn’t believe you. “Sure. But Jake and the Nine-Nine work hard to make sure they get the right person.”

Sophia sighed. “It’s still necessary the accused have a defense. It’s not a fair trial if they don’t.”

Peter mulled that over before nodding. “I guess.”

Sophia looked at Jake as Peter ran off to his room. “I didn’t know you had a kid.”

“He’s not my kid. He’s my little brother.”

“Really?” She looked down towards where Peter had gone. “Well, I hope I made a good impression.”

“Oh, I’m sure you did!” Jake shrugged. “And if you didn’t, just say you like Die Hard. Kid’ll like you right away.”

“You showed a child Die Hard.”

“Okay, this is not where I thought this conversation would be going.” Jake shifted back. “Hey, I already got the third degree from his aunt. But he likes it, and I could have shown him a lot worse.”

Sophia laughed. “Somehow, I’m not surprised.”

“Eh, what can I say? At least the kid’ll be cultured.” Sophia made a face as she laughed a bit harder at him.

*

When he and Sophia broke up, Peter didn’t react well. He thought she was being unreasonable, saying that their jobs were the reason.

“She’s a jerk.”

“She’s allowed to break up with me, Pete.” Jake shrugged. “That’s how relationships work. If it’s not working for one of you, and you don’t think it will or you don’t want to fix it, you let it go.”

Peter shrugged. “Yeah, I get it, but… You really liked her. Now you’re all mopey and it’s her fault.”

“I’ll be fine, bud. I’ve been broken up with before – it gets easier with time.” Jake plopped onto the couch, lightly shoving Peter into the side of the couch and getting a laugh. “Besides, means our Die Hard marathons are back to no-girls!”

“Yeah!” Peter shoots up. “And if I quote the swearwords no one’ll tell May!”

“Um, I’ll tell May. And Ben. And the precinct.” Jake shook his head. “Really, you’re just too adorable when you swear. It’s like one of those tiny dogs that acts like it’s a Doberman.”

Peter scowled at him, and Jake would forever thank any god in existence that this kid was going to have an eternal baby face, because this was just the best ammunition he’s ever had on anyone. Ever. He reached a hand out to Peter. “Come on. Let’s go get junk food and watch some violent movies your aunt most definitely doesn’t approve of.”

“Ben doesn’t like them either.”

“Yeah, but your aunt is the one that has threatened me with bodily harm because she thought I put you in danger _once_.”

“To be fair, she also threatened the criminal that put _you_ in danger, so…” Peter shrugged. “She’s just a worrier.”

“Yeah, I kinda get where she’s coming from.” Jake shuffled his hand through Peter's hair. "You're such a troublemaker!" 

"Hey! I'm not the one that's a cop!" 

*

Two weeks later, Jake started filling his time with teaching Peter guitar. And it worked. He got over Sophia and started focusing on other things. When he went on his first date with Santiago, Peter focused more on teasing him, a bright and light-hearted tone taking over the evening as Jake got ready, and less on whether or not Santiago would break Jake's heart by the end of the night. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since Peter looks up to Jake, I figure it makes sense he would adopt a similar rivalry-like tone when it comes to defense attorneys, even if one of them is his brother's girlfriend. And yeah, by this point they shamelessly call each other brothers. 
> 
> Find me on tumblr:   
> putmymusiconshuffleidareyou.tumblr.com


End file.
